22 Ways To Create A Simple, Small Start-Up

1. Get an idea for a solution or product or service.
2. By noticing what's missing out there.
3. Is anyone else doing it?
   
4. If they are, how are you different?
5. Go back to 1 if you said 'cheaper' to question 4.
6. How much will you charge for your solution/service/product?
7. From 6, how much profit will you make?
8. Will this profit sustain a business which can pay decent salaries, re-invest in future product and every so often make a mistake and/or weather a down-turn?
9. Read this if your answer was 'no' or hesitant in any way to 8 (hey, nobody said this could be done in ten minutes). The book version is here.
10. How will you tell the world about your idea?
11. If you answered 'twitter' to 10, that is your Plan C not A nor B.
12. You need a Plan A and a Plan B.
13. If you have spent any time on the logo, fancy by-lines or pantone colours or choice of coffee machines you are getting distracted by trivia.
14. Go take a walk and start again at 6.
15. Write everything up:
16. What your new company does.
17. How it is different from any competition.
18. How it will make money.
19. And not just money but profit.
20. Sleep on it.
21. OK: now you can work on a name, a logo, a by-line and a pantone colour.
22. Start and get aboard the roller-coaster of running your own enterprise and having a lot of fun, learning a lot about yourself and making the world a better place.

 

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